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Music Factory found in breach of MEAS code

A promotion by The Music Factory/Resident’s Bar in Ashbourne was found to be in breach of the MEAS Code of Practice on the Naming, Packaging and Promotion of Alcoholic Drinks recently.

A promotion by The Music Factory/Resident’s Bar in Ashbourne was found to be in breach of the MEAS Code of Practice on the Naming, Packaging and Promotion of Alcoholic Drinks recently.
An ad, which appeared on the Music Factory/Residents Bar’s facebook page on 25th February 2010, stated, “Friday/Saturday – access all areas and is the place to be with the Exchange running on Friday with prices crashing as low as 2.50
Sunday– Beat the Clock Between 7-11 Drink Prices Start at 2.00 and rise 10c every 10 Minutes until 11 pm”.
MEAS’s independent Complaints Panel reviewed correspondence from the Music Factory which explained that the Exchange is a software programme that generates a “digital price list and displays drink prices on selected items from the time we open to the time we close…the aim is to give value-for-money while also providing a talking-point in the bar – again with a view to offering something more to customers who in this climate are all too aware of value.”
The Panel noted the statement from the Music Factory that, “perhaps some of the promotional wording may have given off the wrong impression” and that it was not its  intention “to promote drunkenness or excessive drinking”.
However the Panel also noted that on Sundays the advertisement encouraged patrons to “Beat the clock between 7-11” as drink prices start at €2.00 and rise by 10c every 10 minutes until 11pm. The Panel concluded that the stepping-up of the price of alcoholic drinks, together with the exhortation to patrons to beat the clock resulted in a promotion that entailed disproportionate risk that it would lead directly to alcohol misuse and anti-social behaviour. Therefore it found that the promotion was in breach of the Code.


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